Thanks again for all my follows and favs and over 1,000 view!
Now then, onward!

"One tiny detail will change your life today as you meet someone who will really have a big effect on your life."
~Unknown

"Dad, where's the water?" Ryou asked his father, tapping him on the shoulder. Takashi Bakura turned around, blinking in surprise.
"Oh, sorry, son. I didn't see you. It's over there" he replied, pointing to a leaning, white tent a short distance away.
"Like you ever see me anyways" Ryou muttered as he headed towards the tent. He never understood why his father always had him come with him on his expeditions during the anniversary of his mother's and sister's deaths. He claimed it was because he wanted them to spend quality time together during that difficult time but it was this day that he seemed more buried in his work and distracted than ever.
Ryou sighed as he grabbed the dirty, plastic water jug and took a long satisfying drink. His thirst quenched, he sat down in the slight shade the tent offered and took out the Millennium Ring.
He sighed again as he stroked the Ring's smooth, slightly warm surface. Although it was stifling at the desert digging sight, the Ring's warmth never ceased to be pleasant.
"Holy crap" a voice suddenly cried from across the jumbled mess of scattered pick axes and leaning tents.
Ryou's head snapped up just as his father rushed towards him, his blue-black hair coming loose from his ponytail as he went.
"Ryou, come on! You've got to see this" he cried, grabbing his son's hand and tugging him along.
Ryou had to admit, he was mildly intrigued. It wasn't that he didn't like coming to Egypt with his father. On the contrary, he loved it. It was just…

Takashi Bakura lead Ryou down a rocky slope to the belly of the digging site were a bunch of archaeologists were practically leaping for joy around what appeared to be a small, low doorway framed in a hieroglyph-covered arch. The door was still half buried under the reddish earth. However, it was large enough to walk through, down a set of dusty stone steps into darkness.
"I've been waiting a long time for this moment" Takashi said, snapping a picture of the tomb entrance as he spoke. "Finally, the Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh."
Ryou rolled his eyes. He couldn't help it. His father's enthusiasm was laughable to him. For he knew that this time tomorrow the tomb entrance would have moved on to a different location, and all that had entered it would forget ever finding it. It was cursed to do so in order to protect whatever was inside. Or at least that was what the ghost in the village had said anyway.
"This appears to be an alternate entrance, sir" one of the diggers explained in his thick Arabic accent. "This tomb has several of them. In theory, it spans over at least six square miles. It is massive."
"Come, let us go down and explore it" one of Takashi Bakura's colleagues said enthusiastically. Ryou's father nodded, he then turned to Ryou
"Would you like to come down too, son?" he asked.
Ryou smiled.
"Why not?" he replied.

And so, Ryou, his father, and two of Takashi Bakura's colleagues lit a lantern, grabbed some cameras and spare film and then slowly began to descend the crumbling stone steps and down the throat of the Tomb.
Ryou sensed ghosts everywhere.
He couldn't see any from where they were as the small group trooped down the gloomy hall.
But that didn't mean he didn't know they were there, there were.
He could hear their whispers and feel the chills of their bodiless auras as they slinked and breathed down the back of his neck, tousling his long white hair.
He glanced around but very little could be seen. The lantern light was bleak and moist; flickering in and out from motion and the movement of ghosts.
The darkness was suffocating. Ryou wasn't fond of this dark, it felt eerily different from common shadows and not in a pleasant way. It pressed in on his body as though it had a solidity of its own and curled ice cold tentacles around him, leaving his skin pale and frozen with fear.
While Takashi Bakura and the others chattered and exclaimed at the marvel of the murky tomb in low whispers, Ryou lagged steadily behind.
He didn't like the darkness, or the whispers, or the outlandish cold. It made the tomb feel living and breathing beneath his feet and around his head. The black pressing in on him; attempting to strangle him.
The dark, it was making his head swim. It was all around him, slowly closing in…

Ryou blinked in surprise and glanced around to find only shadows and silence.
"What the bloody-" he started to say but stopped as fear slowly coiled around his chest.
His father and the others were nowhere to be found.
Even the faint bobbing lantern and their echoing footsteps had faded into the distance.
All there was, on either side of him, were two identical halls that swept off into nothingness.
"Hello!" Ryou hollered in both directions, not even his echo replied.
"Oh dear God" Ryou whispered in despair as he stared desperately from left to right. What had happened? How had he gotten here and where were his father and the others?
Ryou glanced down at the shadowed shimmer of the Ring's luminescent gold from its dangling place on the rope around his neck.
"This is your fault, isn't it?" he asked.
He never had any proof that the Ring was responsible for all the strange goings on that had transpired since first receiving it over two years ago. The reflection, the ability to see ghosts, what happened to his ex-friends back home, and now the memory lapses.
Ryou sighed as he lifted the Ring and held it up to his face.
He didn't know what to do. His mind had drawn a complete blank, and strangely; he wasn't as scared as he thought he should be in the situation he was in. He was lost in the middle of a labyrinth of a tomb, not mention in the pitch dark, and with only the pulsing beat of his hammering heart for company.
His heart and the Ring…
And then the Ring did something it'd never done before; one of the five sharp, metal tassels that dangled from it (the middle one to be precise) suddenly glowed a brilliant gold. It was brighter than the lantern or even an artificial light and it caught Ryou completely by surprise. He cried out and nearly dropped the Ring but held firm and managed to compose himself when the glowing tassel slowly lifted from its usual dangling position. It rose steadily of its own accord until it was pointing straight ahead.
Ryou gaped down at the tassel at a complete loss for words.
Things rarely shocked him. He'd managed to keep his cool when seeing his first ghost (on Halloween no less.) The last time he remembered being this shocked and afraid had been when he'd first gotten the Millennium Ring and his reflection had developed a mind of its own and laughed at him.
He shivered at the memory, but he couldn't think about that right now.
The Ring tassel seemed to be acting like some kind of arrow, showing him the way to go. Although, Ryou couldn't tell if it meant to lead him back to his father or deeper still into the tombs massive depths. He didn't have any other ideas, though; and the Ring was pointing in the direction he was facing anyways (although he was positive he'd been facing the other way the last time he could remember.)
So, slowly, Ryou began to walk forward down the long, black hallway with only the Ring light's thin beam to guide him.
He walked in silence for a few moments, but then he came to a fork in the road; again he found himself staring off into nowhere on either side.
"What do I do now?" he wondered aloud. "They look alike."
He glanced down at the Ring and his stomach dropped to see that it was still pointing in the same direction, which was now at a wall.
"What?" Ryou cried, having half a mind to throw the Ring at the wall. "You lead me to this fork in the road. Now what?" he demanded.
"Perhaps you will think twice next time about taking directions from inanimate objects" said a voice.
Ryou jumped about four feet in the air at that comment.
"Who's there?" he demanded, wondering if the tassels of the Ring where sharp enough to be used as a weapon.
He soon saw, however, that it wouldn't do him much good as the person who spoke morphed out of the wall that the Ring's glowing tassel had been pointed at.

It was obviously a ghost. He could see that she had all the traits: a partially transparent body that glowed in the dim light, and shifted in and out of focus, as well as no pupils. Her empty eyes appeared to have been blue in life and she was clothed from head to toe in long white robes with a hood so that most of her black hair could not be seen although what could be was tied up in thick gold clasps.
She looked middle-aged and kind, with a sort of motherly look to her.
Ryou gawked at her. She gawked right back.
"You heard me?" she asked.
"Damn right I heard you" Ryou snapped irritably "and you scared the buggering hell out of me" he added for good measure.
The women raised an eyebrow, she then drifted steadily closer to him. He couldn't tell for sure, for her feet were hidden beneath her flowing robe, but she appeared to not be completely touching the floor.
"You have the Sight then?" she asked leaning rather close to him.
"Obviously" Ryou replied.
"Strange" the women muttered, her eyes trailing from him. "I didn't think there were any left."
"Any of what left?" Ryou asked but the women didn't answer him.
Her eyes had fallen on the Ring.
She paled (if that was even possible.)
"No" she whispered "it can't be…the Millennium Ring."
Ryou stared down at the Item, having almost forgotten he was holding it. The tassel was still glowing but now, as he and the ghost woman looked down at it, he saw it shift so that now it was pointing to his right.
"Where did you get that?" the woman asked.
"I… if you must know it was a present from my father, and no; you can't have it so don't bother asking" Ryou said rather hurriedly.
The woman looked mildly alarmed.
"What is going on?" called a voice from Ryou's right (the direction the Ring tassel was now pointing to.)
Ryou turned towards it and low and behold another ghost was striding towards him.
This was of a man who actually looked around the appropriate age to be a ghost. He was elderly, tall, and rather thin with a long, tanned face that was mostly hidden by a greying beard. He was clothed in the same ankle length robes as the woman but his were blue and trimmed in quite an amount of gold. His hair was hidden beneath a large, draping hat that was blue like his robes and had a snake at the center of it: a gold cobra. It was a strange hat and actually looked more like a crown.
Ryou gaped.
No, it couldn't be…

"My Pharaoh" the ghost woman exclaimed, dropping generously to one knee.
"Rise, Lady Ishtar" the Pharaoh replied, waving his hand dismissively before his violet eyes fell on Ryou.
"And who might this boy be?" he asked.
"I do not know, my Pharaoh" the woman, Lady Ishtar, replied getting to her feet, "but he has the Millennium Ring" she added.
The Pharaoh arched an eyebrow and, perhaps it was the shimmering of his luminescent form, but Ryou thought he detected a glimmer of fear cross his stern face.
"The Millennium Ring?" the Pharaoh whispered. "How is that possible?"
He slowly strode over to Ryou, who remained frozen where he stood, too petrified to move, the Pharaoh gently took Ryou's chin in his hand and lifted it up so as to look him dead in the eye.
"Who are you?" he breathed, more to himself then anything.
"Might I ask the same to you" Ryou replied bravely. "Tell me, are you the Nameless Pharaoh?"
The Pharaoh chuckled and released Ryou's face.
"No, the King with No Name is my son. I am Pharaoh Aknamkanon."
"Oh" Ryou muttered, not really sure what else to say.
"That is an interesting Ring you have there" Pharaoh Aknamkanon added, crossing his arms.
"Don't act like I don't know where that's going. I know you know what the Millennium Ring is. Although, I don't know why you're so freaked out by it."
The Pharaoh leaned in close with a grim smile.
"If you do not know, then why are you so freaked out over it?" he asked.
Ryou opened his mouth to answer but then quickly closed it for he, again, didn't know.
Lady Ishtar cleared her throat.
"My king" she said to Pharaoh Aknamkanon. "Perhaps we should escort him to the main chamber. I'm sure they would like to speak with him" she said pointedly.
The Pharaoh nodded.
"Indeed" he agreed.
"Go where?" Ryou demanded. "You're not taking me anywhere."
"So, you would rather wander the halls of this tomb unaided, then?" the Pharaoh asked.
Defeated, Ryou shook his head.
"Good, then come along" Lady Ishtar said, taking Ryou's hand and leading him down the hall that Pharaoh Aknamkanon had come from. As Ryou passed the Pharaoh, he caught his eyes narrow suspiciously.

They walked for a few moments; Ryou being lead along by Lady Ishtar's cold, clammy hand while Pharaoh Aknamkanon strode behind them.
Ryou stopped asking where they were headed after a couple turns because neither seemed inclined to tell him.
So they walked in silence until they reached a large, stone door that stood at least fifteen feet tall and had no knob.
Pharaoh Aknamkanon walked past them. He raised his hand to the door and it slowly began to rise.
Ryou was, of course, underwhelmed. He'd seen stranger.
"Follow us" the Pharaoh said to Ryou before walking through the door.
The room beyond was large and dark, lit only by a few dying torches and the faint aura of three more ghosts who were all huddled around a throne at the opposite end of the long room.
They appeared to be arguing.
"You promised us salvation! Revenge!" one of them shrieked. "I entrusted my Item to you and what do you do? Waste your time with a bunch of meaningless children."
"They are not meaningless" another voice calmly replied. "They are able to hold the Items and use their power. Therefore, they must be-."
"Stop spouting that nonsense" the first voice shouted. "There are no more of that kind left. They died out with the Fall of the Shadows Games thousands of years ago."
What does he mean? Ryou wondered. That ghost Lady said that she didn't think there was any of something left too.
"What does he mean?" he asked Lady Ishtar, but she ignored him.
"Tell me, what you plan to gain from this?" the first voice continued to shout. "Putting the fate of everything into the hands of a bunch of children; children who might not even be what you claim them to be."
"Perhaps not" the second voice interrupted "but until the Nameless Pharaoh returns, they are our only hope."
"Yes but-" the first voice started but then…
"Will you both just shut up?" a third voice suddenly snapped.
Ryou glanced over to where the voices were all gathered around the throne, they were close enough now that he could make out more than just their glowing auras.
They were three men, all of whom were adorned in traditional Egyptian attire.
"You have not right to speak to me in such a manner, Tomb Keeper" the first voice which belonged to a tall, thin man wearing a one shoulder white robe and a chin-length black wig, snapped at the owner of the third voice, who was sitting on the Pharaoh's throne.
This man was tall and exceptionally skinny. He had tanned skin like the others but his shaggy, shoulder-length hair was an ash blond rather than black.
He rose to his feet; his lavender eyes fuming.
"You try saying that one more time! We may be dead, but I can still mutilate you just as I could do in life" he cried.
Was it Ryou's imagination or had the room suddenly gotten darker?
"Enough, the both of you" the second voice finally said, stepping out of the shadows and in between the two quarreling ghosts.
Ryou actually couldn't really tell if this guy was a ghost. His cold blue eyes housed no pupils but he appeared rather solid. He was cloaked in a long white robe with a matching turban that left most of his head covered.
The Pharaoh cleared his throat, and all three of the men ceased there bickering and immediately snapped to attention.
The blonde ghost quickly hopped down from the Pharaoh's throne, looking embarrassed.
The Pharaoh walked confidently past the three ghosts, all of whom bowed respectfully as he went, before taking a seat on the throne.
"Hey, who in Ra's name is that?" the blonde ghost demanded, pointing to Ryou, who still stood beside Lady Ishtar at the base of the throne.
His response was the black haired ghost cuffing him in the back of the head.
"Do not show such disrespect to your Pharaoh!" he snapped.
"Enough, Karim" Pharaoh Aknamkanon said to the black haired ghost. "We do not require formalities at this time."
He turned to Ryou. "Why don't you tell us who you are, son?" he said.
"My name is Ryou Bakura" Ryou stated, stepping away from the ghost woman's icy grasp and towards the other three ghosts.
The ghost in the turban raised an eyebrow.
"You are the Wielder of the Millennium Ring" he stated.
The blonde ghost, whose name hadn't yet been spoken, looked up in alarm. Karim, on the other hand, nearly lost it where he stood.
"What!" he cried. "The Ring still walks amongst the Mortals?" he turned to the turban ghost. "How could you allow this to happen, Shadi?"
Karim pointed a finger at Ryou, not waiting for the turban ghost called Shadi to respond. "That boy has become a danger if he holds the Ring…If it is anything like before" his voice trailed off and he seemed to be strangely at a loss for words.
"What do you mean?" Ryou cried. "What's wrong with the Ring? What happened before?"
"We wish we were at a position to tell you, honey" Lady Ishtar said apologetically "but we ourselves do not fully understand the Darkness behind the Ring."
"All we can do is hope that the Items remain where they are and with the proper Wielders until the Pharaoh returns" Pharaoh Aknamkanon said.
Ryou stared at the Pharaoh. "What do you mean 'the Pharaoh's return' and there are other Items aside from the Ring?" he asked.
"Of course there are" Karim snapped indignantly. "There were nine in total. I used to have one, but I gave it to him and now he holds two of them" he added, gesturing to Shadi.
Shadi smiled slightly and held up a set of brass scales with the Eye of Wdjat carved in the center between the two trays. He also had a large, ankh cross key tied around his neck.
"These are the Millennium Scale and Key" he explained.
"Yes, yes" Karim continued. "Those Items were lucky enough to find their way into the hands of someone responsible. Unfortunately, the remaining seven wafted into the hands of amateurs, including yourself."
Ryou didn't know if he should be offended by that.
"Who cares if a bunch of kids found them?" the blonde Tomb Keeper ghost asked. "The Original Wielders were-what?-sixteen, seventeen years old?"

Karim snorted in response.
"The other Items do not matter" Lady Ishtar said firmly. "The Ring was never meant to leave the Crypt. How it did, I do not know. But, it cannot be left into the hands of this boy. It is too dangerous."
Ryou stared at her.
What was she saying? Were these ghosts going to take his Ring from him?
As though by instinct, Ryou's hand tightened around the warm gold.
"She has got a point" the blonde ghost said as he began to walk over to Ryou. "The Ring is too dangerous to be allowed to exist out in the world any longer."
He was very close now.
"No!" Ryou cried taking a step back. "You can't take my Ring!"
"It's for the best, son" Pharaoh Aknamkanon called from his throne. "The Ring is dangerous."
"No!" Ryou repeated. "You can't have it!"
"Try to understand, we're helping you by doing this" the blonde ghost said as he slowly reached for the Millennium Ring.
Ryou's hand moved seemingly of its own accord. It lunged out and snatched the forearm of the ghost crushing it in his grasp.
"I said you can't have my Ring!" Ryou cried, baring his teeth in anger.
The blonde ghost stared in shock. He tried to say something but Ryou didn't stick around to listen. Quickly, he thrust the blonde ghost's hand aside, pushed past Lady Ishtar and high-tailed it to the door.
"Ryou, stop!" she called after him but he paid her no heed as he sprinted out the door, down the hall, around the corner, and ran straight smack into his father.
"Ryou, thank goodness! There you are" his father exclaimed, pulling his son into an awkward hug. "Where on earth have you been? I was so worried" his father demanded.
Ryou shrugged. "I just lagged behind and lost you" he replied simply.
"Well, don't do that again. You have to be careful down here. Who knows what you'll find."
Ryou nodded.
"You have no idea" he muttered under his breath.

"We have to go after him" the ghost woman cried, making a move towards the door.
"Don't bother" Karim called to her. "It is too late to save him now."
Shadi turned towards the Pharaoh, who was looking very tense.
"What do we do now, my king?" he asked.
The Pharaoh sighed "and so it begins" he whispered. "All over again."

Ryou sprinted through the tangled mess of passerby, shoving and wriggling his way through the thick throng of people.
"Hey, watch were you are going!" a voice called after him in a thick Arabic accent, but Ryou paid him no mind. He was in a hurry, after all.
He promised his father he'd meet him back at the car at half past noon and it was nearly quarter to one.
One couldn't help but lose track of time in Egypt.
All the same, Ryou quickened his pace as he hastily glanced at his watch again. He then noticed that the Millennium Ring had slipped out from being tucked under his shirt. Not wanting to slacken his pace, Ryou attempted to stuff it back into his collar on the run.
Not looking where he was going, he ran head long into a hard object that was coming straight at him at the same pace.
With an 'oomf,' Ryou was thrust down onto his back in the middle of the sidewalk, hitting his head on the hard ground.
"Hey, what the hell?" Ryou demanded, sitting back up, massaging his head. "You should watch where you're going, you-"he stopped when his eyes fell on what, or rather who, he'd smashed into.
It was a girl around his age. She was dressed in khaki shorts, a black button down that was tied up to expose her midriff, and a pair of worn hiking boots.
"Ow" she muttered, pushing a lock of her thick silver hair out of her eyes to reveal an olive-hued face.
Ryou's mouth opened slightly and his heart beat quickened.
Her reddish brown eyes that were coated in thick liner locked on him and her face paled as though she was afraid.
"No…" she whispered.
Ryou felt a strange heat creeping up his face.
The girl's eyes traveled from his own down to the Millennium Ring, which lay lopsided and exposed against his chest.
"Hey I-" Ryou started to say but the girl didn't give him time to finish his sentence. With a gasp, she leapt to her feet and sprinted past him and down the street, weaving expertly through the crowd.
"Wait" Ryou called after her, shifting on to his knees. "Who are you? Why do I feel like I know you?"

Squee! I love this chapter! I don't know what it is, but I just love it so much. It was so fun to write. Not to mention Ryou and Destiny bumping into each other at the end!
Well, another Ryou-centric chapter. I know these detours are kind of sporadic, but I'm doing a bit of a character analysis of Ryou on the side of Destiny's story, trying to show his subtle obsession with the Millennium Ring that prevents him from getting rid of it. Just a headcanon of mine
So, read and review and tell me your own thoughts!